No matter what your perspective on the Affordable Care Act, this shocking bit of news should concern—and disturb—you greatly.

According to the National Journal’s Influence Alley, at the very same time the American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)—the health insurance industry super lobby—was cutting a deal with the White House leading to its stated support of the proposed Obamacare legislation, they were secretly funneling huge amounts money to the Chamber of Commerce to be spent on advertising designed to convince the public that the legislation should be defeated.

How much money?

A stunning $102.4 million spent over just 15 months.

While one would not think that so much money could be spent in secret, AHIP pulled it off by utilizing a completely legal process of funneling the cash to the Chamber under the radar while putting the giant expenditure on their books under the simple heading of ‘advocacy’.

According to the National Journal:

The backchannel spending allowed insurers to publicly stake out a pro-reform position while privately funding the leading anti-reform lobbying group in Washington. The chamber spent tens of millions of dollars bankrolling efforts to kill health care reform.

The behind-the-scenes transfers were particularly hard to track because the law does not require groups to publicly disclose where they are sending the money or who they are receiving it from.

For example, in its 2009 IRS filing, AHIP reported giving almost $87 million to unnamed advocacy organizations for "grassroots outreach, education and mobilization, print, online, and broadcast advertising and coalition building efforts" on health care reform. That same year, the chamber reported receiving $86.2 million from an undisclosed group. Bloomberg's Drew Armstrong first reported the AHIP-chamber link. The $86 million accounted for about 42 percent of the total contributions and grants the chamber received.

The next year followed a similar pattern. In 2010, AHIP reported giving $16.5 million to unnamed advocacy organizations working on health care reform and the chamber reported receiving about $16.2 million from an undisclosed source, which the Alley has learned was AHIP. The $16.2 million accounted for about 8.6 percent of the total contributions and grants the chamber received that year.

So, why would AHIP try to secretly destroy a legislative scheme that would drive millions of new customers into their arms thanks to the mandated insurance provisions?

According to Neera Tanden, who served as the senior advisor for health reform at the Department of Health and Human Services and was a member of the Obama White House health reform team, it was all about the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR)—the provision of the ACA that not only requires the health insurance companies to spend 80 percent of your premium dollars on actual health care expenditures, but further requires that they refund to their customers any amounts they fail to spend as required by the MLR.

The total rebates under the law that will shortly be refunded to insurance customers are estimated to total $1.1 billion for 2011 alone—clearly motivation for the insurers to defeat the law although one wonders if it wouldn't be easier for these companies to simply follow the law and spend according to the MLR.

Any industry group is free to take whatever position it believes to be in the best interests of its members. However, to present itself as being supportive of critically important proposed law while secretly spending over $100 million to defeat the very same legislation is the ultimate in duplicitous behavior and should make very clear just what the health insurance industry is all about.

Whether you support or oppose the Affordable Care Act, I cannot imagine that this type of behavior would be acceptable to any American and stands as a shining example of the corruption big money imparts to our political system.

If the insurance industry lacks sufficient spine to take a legitimate stand on a piece of legislation that is critical to its interests—and ours— how do you imagine they are going to behave when you find yourself depending on these people to come through for you during a medical emergency?

To borrow a phrase from Keith Olbermann (remember him?), these have to be the worst people in the world.